Acting Commissioner Linda Williams says rising cost of living pressures contributing to recent crime spike

Increased cost of living pressures are contributing to a spike in crime, according to South Australia’s top police officers.

Increased cost of living pressures are driving a spike in crime, the state’s top cops say.

The latest SA Police crime statistics show theft from shops increased by 30 per cent from September 2022 to September 2023, while robbery and other related offences jumped by 27 per cent in the same period.

Acting Commissioner Linda Williams said increased cost of living was a contributing factor in the crime spike.

“There are many reasons for why people commit crimes and if we’re looking at theft as one, that can be varied by just people wanting to take things that don’t belong to them, to the fact that people may be suffering in terms of their ability to buy tings due to cost of living,” Ms Williams said.

“It’s driven by what people can and can’t afford.

Acting Commissioner Linda Williams says increased cost of living pressures are contributing to a recent spike in crime. Picture: Matt Loxton

“A lot of the things they’re taking are low value and necessity items like food … it’s not like people are stealing always high-end goods, it’s the basics sometimes.

“We know that cost of living is going up, mortgage (interest) rates are going up – these can have an impact on people in terms of accessibility of items.

“We always see a little bit of a spike in certain crime types at certain times of the year – Christmas would be one for shop theft and I think the retail industry is sadly well aware of that and they do a lot in terms of how they can minimise that theft but obviously they can never 100 per cent guarantee that and we work with them in terms of things like Operation Paragon.”

Last week, The Advertiser revealed more than 22,000 reports of theft from shops had been made to police in the past 18 months, with a peak retailers union warning shoplifting had become an organised crime “epidemic”.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Scott Duval said cost of living was a “big pressure” driving a crime increase. Picture: Brett Hartwig

South Australian Independent Retailers chief executive Colin Shearing said the reports had increased by 20 per cent compared to the previous 18 months.

“They’re becoming quite professionalised in their approach to organising the crime,” Mr Shearing said.

“There’s total organised crime out there.”

On Tuesday, Acting Deputy Commissioner Scott Duval said rising cost of living was a “big pressure” that had contributed to the spike in crime.

South Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Ross Womersley last week told The Advertiser households were under “enormous” pressure.

“Of course there are pressures and in some instances some people will … feel so desperate that they might actually steal food on occasions,” Mr Womersley said.

“There’s absolutely no doubt that the pressure, particularly on those households that are on very low and modest incomes, have been enormous.”